Campus Inno – AmericanInnohttps://www.americaninno.com
Your Source for Local InnovationWed, 13 Dec 2017 23:25:41 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.1This Smart Portable Air Purifier Doubles as a Mask to Help You Breathe Clean Airhttps://www.americaninno.com/This+Smart+Portable+Air+Purifier+Doubles+as+a+Mask+to+Help+You+Breathe+Clean+Air
Mon, 25 Sep 2017 18:03:06 +0000https://www.americaninno.com/?p=177722Kuanze Ma was a student in his dorm room in Beijing when one day he suddenly started experiencing difficulty in breathing. His roommates had left the room’s windows open and the city’s notoriously smoky air had filled the room, causing stress on his already week respiratory system.

A few years since then, he finds himself an entrepreneur and co-founder of a startup in Chicago leveraging internet of things technologies to develop smart, connected products for personal health. Specifically, his company, ORIHD, has developed what it claims is the world’s first portable air purifier that supplies clean, breathable air and doubles as a smart face mask and wearable device. Additionally, it syncs up easily with a mobile handset via Bluetooth technology and provides real-time information on surrounding air quality.

ORIHD dock combining the detachable face mask and air purifier.

The product is available as a two-piece set, including a mask and a purifier which can be combined easily into one docked product. This dock contains ultraviolet light which sterilizes the internal side of the mask, thus making it safer to wear. While indoors, one can set the purifier on a table or desk and it fills the room with clean air devoid of particulates. When detached and used as a mask, the product’s “smart” sensors detect when its filter has reached its shelf life and needs replacement, alerting both the user’s mobile phone and ORIHD. Among the data the purifier collects and displays on air quality include the amount of particulates in the air, composition of gases, and GPS-enabled statistics on the surrounding geographical area.

While Ma is motivated to work on the issue because of the air quality back home, ORIHD (which is short for “Original High Definition”) is also strategically looking at vulnerable communities in the United States, buoyed by recent data suggesting that a staggering 127 million Americans are at risk of harmful effects from pollen and air pollution. “Clean quality air is something we often take for granted in the absence of visible air pollution,” he says.

ORIHD mobile platform

Ma came to Chicago as a student of Northwestern University’s Master of Science in Law program, which specifically aims to engage students in legal aspects of technology-driven entrepreneurial ventures. His founding team is comprised of an engineering PhD student and graduate students in Marketing and Communications, all of whom collaborated in Northwestern’s multidisciplinary entrepreneurial ventures class, NUVention.

Ma and his team haven’t finalized pricing for the product yet but they’re looking at about $25 for just the filter and around $125 for the docking system. He also says his product has a competitive advantage: “Other mask companies are making more high-end, fashionable masks. While we aren’t compromising on design, we want to make our product more affordable because clean air is a universal concern,” he said.

Based at Northwestern’s Garage incubator and co-working space for student startups, ORIHD completed the summer Wildfire summer accelerator program. The company is looking to continue verifying its product’s proof of concept via 3D-printing for the second prototype. It has also connected with the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America working towards a long-term partnership, as well as filed one provisional patent for their technology.

]]>This Startup’s Solar-Powered Routers Are Bringing Better WiFi To Public Spaceshttps://www.americaninno.com/chicago/this-startups-solar-powered-routers-are-bringing-better-wifi-to-public-spaces/
Thu, 24 Aug 2017 18:47:09 +0000https://www.americaninno.com/?p=176980Danny Gardner was an undergraduate studying Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) when his friend pointed out the technical and financial complexities in installing hardware systems for a service often taken for granted: WiFi in public spaces. Conducting market research in mobile-heavy demographics like Tanzania and India, a chance meeting with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel showed him the potential opportunity was equally ripe in Chicago parks on the South and West sides of the city.

Launched in the spring of 2016, Gardner’s company, Mesh++, is building hardware solutions in the form of solar-powered WiFi “nodes” (routers) that form a mesh-like network which are able to communicate with each other using data already stored on the devices. “Instead of using satellites to scan large areas of land, we thought: Why not bring parts of the internet that people are already using, to them directly?” said Gardner in an interview with Chicago Inno.

Mesh++ devices are able to store 16GB of data and broadcast a WiFi network all day (irrespective of availability of sunlight) up to 1,100 ft in any direction — which is more than most routers, according to the startup. Its nodes communicate with each other wirelessly, thus easily allowing WiFi-enabled devices to access data on its network. What’s more, the nodes only cost about $20 in parts and require no existing infrastructure: no electrical grid or server connected to the global internet, if you’re able to upload all the data you want to provide onto the nodes. The nodes can easily be installed on top of lamp posts in traditional public spaces.

“Solar-powered WiFi isn’t a new concept, but what sets us apart is our ability to work with limited infrastructure, and how we bypass the costs of traditional fiber or heavy solar panels which are also difficult to move or reinstall every time you need to reconfigure the network,” said Gardner. “We are leveraging the decreasing costs of WiFi hardware and flash memory to provide better connectivity in a simple, scalable format.”

Danny Gardner with Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Credit: Mesh++

What started off as a Senior Design Project hosting a few Wikipedia pages on nodes installed across the UIUC quad is now an active venture with five team members performing engineering and business development roles. A finalist at UIUC’s startup competition Cozad, Mesh++ received a $10,000 investment from IllinoisVENTURES, spent the summer of 2016 on campus at the iVenture Accelerator and is currently based at mHub in Chicago. Soon, it will be relocating to Shenzhen, China, having received $175,000 in funding and a spot at Hax, the world’s first and largest hardware startup accelerator.

Recently, the technical debacle of the Pokémon Go Fest occurred in Chicago, and going by Ninantic CEO’s official word, service providers should have been better prepared for network congestion and oversaturation of data. Gardner hopes that pre-loading data or information onto a mesh network like Mesh++ means you don’t have to rely on cellular networks as much.

Gardner met Emanuel as the Mayor took his tech talent retention effort ThinkChicago on a road trip down to Champaign and offered a chance for the startup to pilot its technology in Chicago. Looking to have a complete product by early 2018, Gardner is excited at spending the next few months in China. “We continue to believe in our technology’s potential to improve educational offerings, e-commerce tools and communication infrastructure, to ultimately boost economies everywhere,” concluded Gardner.

]]>This Chicago Entrepreneur Wants to Fix the Dreaded ‘Group Project’https://www.americaninno.com/chicago/this-chicago-entrepreneur-wants-to-fix-the-dreaded-group-project/
Wed, 23 Aug 2017 21:21:37 +0000https://www.americaninno.com/?p=176528Educators have long advocated for students to work on projects and assignments in teams, hoping cross-collaboration will help students pick up “real world” skills. But ask any student, or perhaps think back to your own experience: Is it always smooth sailing when it comes to group projects?

Omnipointment, a startup out of the Illinois Institute of Technology, has been studying collegiate and high school group projects using a human-centered design approach. One of the biggest complaints it has heard from students is the challenge in holding teammates accountable to do the fair share of their work. While teachers (rightly) recommend setting clear team expectations, this can be a tedious task in itself.

To this end, the startup recently launched a new platform called Charter. A mobile and desktop platform, Charter is an interface allowing teammates to set, agree on and track expectations. “We created Charter so that you can have great teammates and a smooth group experience by avoiding petty conflicts,” said Vinesh Kannan, co-founder of Omnipointment, in an interview with Chicago Inno.

Charter platform

The platform has designated sections to clarify the project objective, set expectations, define individual team roles and schedule team meetings. Students don’t need a separate login other than Google credentials and can easily invite each other to join a project. Instructors can also view progress of the project using a separate login, and provide feedback within the platform. Upcoming updates to the platform include “Milestones”, to track deliverables and provide feedback, according to Kannan.

Charter is part of Omnipointment’s larger mission to help college students manage their busy schedules more efficiently with a range of features to facilitate easy collaboration and teamwork. Kannan says that students at over 75 schools across the U.S. — including 8 paying clients — are using the platform in various projects.

Launched about two years ago, the startup has raised $25,000 as part of Omaha-based accelerator Straight Shot’s 2016 cohort and also presented at SXSW’s Student Startup Madness earlier this year. Kannan credits much of his early traction to resources provided by the Chicago-based Future Founders Foundation as well mentorship from Professor Nik Rokop at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Stuart School of Business.

Along with his co-founder and fellow Illinois Tech computer science student Brendan Batliner, Kannan has unique insight into what it means to be a busy college student. This summer, not only did he work on building the best version of Charter with “hundreds of UX interviews,” but Kannan also taught code to incoming freshmen at the Illinois Tech-based Exelon Summer Institute. He regularly organizes hackathons for other Illinois Tech computer science students to gain exposure to industry. Outside of his campus involvement, Kannan has been hard at work building a unique civic tech platform at local meetup group Chi Hack Night, called Fantasy Civics (a fantasy football-like game for your local aldermen, or as described by Kannan, “a brainchild of ESPN and the Chicago Data Portal”).

For the fall, Omnipointment is looking for more educational institutions and student activity organizations to pilot its product.

]]>This Startup Wants to End Illinois’ Rape Kit Testing Backloghttps://www.americaninno.com/chicago/this-startup-wants-to-end-illinois-rape-kit-testing-backlog/
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 17:42:40 +0000https://www.americaninno.com/?p=176448One person in the United States is sexually assaulted every 98 seconds, according to RAINN, the country’s largest anti-sexual violence organization. RAINN also found that only 7 out of 1000 cases end in a felony conviction.

Unfortunately, a big reason why a large number of perpetrators remain out of prison can be attributed to an outdated and inefficient technology system tracking what happens to a crucial piece of evidence in the sexual assault investigation process — rape kits.

When rape victims consent to report a crime and go to the hospital, they are entitled to get forensic evidence — as part of these rape kits — to help identify and prosecute their assailant. These kits are then stored with police, who only transfer the kit to DNA testing labs upon request. Unfortunately, due to under-staffing and under-funding of these labs, many kits simply do not get tested, according to End the Backlog, a national advocacy group.

Cut to the Case, a startup launched by two University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) undergrads, wants to help end this part of the larger problem. It is developing a tech platform that allows victims and other stakeholders to monitor the progress of individual cases as soon as the report is made.

“We hope our technology will increase accountability and transparency throughout the sexual assault investigation process, thus bringing justice to more rape victims,” said Kendall Furbee, co-founder of the startup, in an interview with Chicago Inno.

The startup’s rape kit tracking platform hopes to provide valuable data for key stakeholders — law enforcement officials, hospitals, advocacy groups, attorneys, and victims themselves, according to Furbee. The user interface, designed keeping the victim’s confidentiality and privacy in mind, provides a unique code for the victim to log onto the platform, and includes a physical tracking component for the individual rape kit, similar to RFID or bar code tracking. The startup hopes this will provide stakeholders with up-to-date information on individual cases.

The platform also hopes to be an education resource for victims, informing them of their rights and enabling in-platform connections to victim advocates, legal assistance and advocacy groups. The startup is committed to keeping the platform free and accessible for rape victims, and is in the process of figuring out pricing structures for law enforcement agencies to use the platform.

Despite pioneering legislation to require annual audits and testing of rape kits, Illinois currently has a backlog of 3,100 cases of untested kits as of available data from February 2016. This is due to a multitude of factors which mirror the national scenario: high cost of testing (each kit can cost between $1,000 to $1,500 to test), outdated technology, a shortage of staff, and funding shortfalls only somewhat relieved by the end of the statewide budget impasse. Furbee recognizes the resource-constrained environment that law enforcement officials have to operate in: “We hope our technology will only make their existing job easier, leaving them more time to conduct investigations,” she said.

The problem is troublingly prevalent on college campuses — one in seven female respondents of a 2016 survey at UIUC confirmed experiencing sexual assault, fairly indicative of the national trend. Hence, the startup wants to start local and is looking to launch their first pilot this upcoming fall in partnership with Champaign-based law enforcement agencies.

The startup at iVenture’s Chicago Demo Day.

Furbee, a Materials Science & Engineering student, met her co-founder Premika Pandian while they were both part of another UIUC startup, Maker Girl. Before that, Furbee was a part of Cast21, a startup success out of UIUC’s iVenture accelerator, which has also supported Cut to the Case this summer with $10,000 in funding and access to mentorship in a cohort model. Furbee and Pandian are now looking for law and design students on the UIUC campus, as well as statewide advocacy groups working in this space, to help them with the pilot this fall.

]]>This UIUC Startup’s ‘Sun Buckets’ Can Cook Your Food Without Any Fuelhttps://www.americaninno.com/chicago/this-uiuc-startups-sun-buckets-can-cook-your-food-without-any-fuel/
Wed, 26 Jul 2017 18:51:41 +0000https://www.americaninno.com/?p=175666Close to 40% of the world’s population relies on solid fuel sources for cooking, rather than electric or gas appliances, like microwaves, ovens and stoves, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

And these fuel sources, like wood, charcoal, biomass and animal dung, don’t burn with clean flames, and combined with leaky stoves, contribute to a global epidemic of indoor air pollution — leading to almost 4 million premature deaths annually — per the same WHO report. Moreover, this practice compounds deforestation, contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, and disproportionately subjects women and children to concerns like gender-based violence as they spend hours navigating treacherous areas to gather this fuel, adds the World Bank.

Sun Bucket in “heat collection” mode on a Haitian rooftop.

Dr. Bruce Elliott-Litchfield, professor of 31 years at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, was first exposed — and consequently “hooked onto” — this problem while serving as a faculty advisor to UIUC’s Engineers Without Borders student chapter. To address it, he considered the largest, free, inexhaustible, and most widely accessible renewable resource: the sun. In late 2014, he joined forces with PhD student Matthew Alonso to launch Sun Buckets (name for both product and company), which has created the world’s first portable stored solar thermal energy source for energy intensive tasks, like cooking.

“While many others are tackling this problem, almost everyone is designing improved combustion stoves — which still burn wood or charcoal or dung, and still create emissions. We chose to take a more dramatic approach,” said Dr. Elliott-Litchfield in an interview with Chicago Inno.

Sun Buckets cook at temperatures close to those of flames, without any need for fire, fuel or releasing any emissions, per the startup. Dr. Elliott-Litchfield described a Sun Bucket as a cylindrical container made of recyclable aluminium, typically 12 inches in diameter and 6 inches deep, and with insulations on all sides except for a black heat transfer plate. For “charging” in heat collection mode, the vessel is placed at the focal point of a reflective parabolic dish, in the path of direct or indirect sunlight. Attaining temperatures of up to 350°C in about two hours, the Sun Bucket, with an outer shell that is cool to touch, is then removed from the dish and covered with an insulated lid. The heat stored can be used to cook a variety of foods, immediately or anytime in the next six hours, with the startup working to improve this feature even further.

“We recognize that nobody likes cooking in unfamiliar ways, so we want to work strategically with organizations familiar with our target user base,” he said.

Sun Buckets has filed a patent for its product and process, and currently operates as a seven member team out of the product development space The Product Manufactory in Urbana. It is seeking expertise as it continues to drive down costs, improves its product and explores a Kickstarter campaign, SBIR funding from the NSF, and more pitch competitions.

The startup is also actively considering domestic market applications: The National Park Service and the Green Restaurant Association have both expressed interest in Sun Buckets as a sustainable way to cook. “Both domestic and international markets pose unique challenges, but we are hopeful that our technology is applicable in many different cooking situations,” he concluded.

Edit: This article has been updated to reflect Matt Alonso’s correct academic status at the university and that the Sun Bucket reaches temperatures of 350°C and not 350°F.

]]>This UChicago Startup Is Developing A Cure For Food Allergieshttps://www.americaninno.com/chicago/this-uchicago-startup-is-developing-a-cure-for-food-allergies/
Fri, 21 Jul 2017 18:05:29 +0000https://www.americaninno.com/?p=171401Chances are we all know someone allergic to any one of either milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, soy, fish, or shellfish, which are the eight most common type of food allergens.

Close to 6 million children under the age of 18 — roughly 1 in every 13, or 2 in every classroom — show severe allergic reactions to at least one food allergen, according to national research and advocacy organization Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE). When including adults, this number touches 15 million in the United States alone.Accidental exposure to food allergens is a major concern, especially for parents of allergic children, and usually they are forced to resort to one of two solutions: Either eliminate the food entirely from the diet, or carry around EpiPens — engulfed in controversy for much of last year for their outrageous prices. Regardless, both these solutions are only applicable after exposure to the allergen — there are currently no FDA approved drugs preventing food allergies from occurring in the first place, which continue to send one affected individual to the emergency room every three minutes.

That might change soon. ClostraBio, a startup out of the University of Chicago, is developing new therapeutics targeting symptoms of — rather than reactions to — common food allergies. ClostraBio recognizes that microbes, comprising almost 90 percent of the human body, play a potent role in protecting the body against allergens, and it is developing therapeutics which boost this protective microbial barrier function in individuals where it has been compromised. The startup is working to develop a pill in order to administer its treatment, and currently testing for peanut allergies, with potential applications towards other allergens and protection from diseases linked to food allergies, such as eczema, asthma, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

“Increased exposure to antibiotics, diets consisting more fat and less fiber, and sedentary lifestyles are all changing our internal microbial ecosystems, and [scientists] anticipate that this will cause the number of people affected by allergies to rise even more,” explains Dr. John Colson, Director of Operations for ClostraBio, in an interview with ChicagoInno.

ClostraBio takes advantage of what are known as “germ-free environments” in their labs at UChicago, allowing the team to manipulate and compare test subjects — mice — with different variations of microbes introduced in them. Dr. Colson says the mice have shown increased sensitization to food allergens when certain bacterial populations are depleted in the gut, allowing the team to better understand which exact strains of bacteria are responsible for protecting the body against which allergens. ClostraBio’s pill mimics the function of these protective bacteria and increases the natural protective functions of peptides and mucus in the gastrointestinal tract.

The ClostraBio team also found that infants, some as young as four months but with a cow’s milk allergy, have a composition of their microbiome different from that seen in healthy children. But before entering human clinical trials, it wants to ensure complete safety via similar standards in its animal tests. “As we do this, we will be looking to identify right groups of human patient population for clinical trials,” he said.

Dr. Colson is the first full-time employee of ClostraBio, joining two renowned scientific experts and co-founders, Dr. Cathy Nagler and Dr. Jeff Hubbell. While Dr. Nagler has spent her thirty year career understanding the gut’s response to food allergens, Dr. Hubbell is a chemical engineer and material scientist with 77 patents and experience developing synthetic materials for three entrepreneurial ventures based on his research. Dr. Colson, previously a postdoctoral researcher in polymer chemistry at the University of Chicago Institute of Molecular Engineering and an Innovation Fund Associate, joined the team a few months prior to its launch as a company in the fall of 2016.

“Now is a fantastic time for students and researchers to explore entrepreneurship in a university setting,” he said, noting that ClostraBio works closely with both the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation as well as the Institute for Translational Medicine at the university to commercialize its research. “The school is very receptive and encouraging towards new discoveries of products that add value to human life.”

Edit: A previous version of this article misspelled Dr. Hubbell’s name. The error is regretted.

]]>This Northwestern Alum’s ‘Greenhouse-in-a-Box’ Protects Farmers From Climate Changehttps://www.americaninno.com/chicago/this-northwestern-alums-greenhouse-in-a-box-protects-farmers-from-climate-change/
Thu, 20 Jul 2017 16:26:46 +0000https://www.americaninno.com/?p=61292Climate change is already impacting the way we grow crops, both directly, through extreme weather events and irregularities in long-standing climate patterns, and indirectly, through increased incidence of pests and pathogens, according to a 2014 National Climate Assessment from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.One tested solution that protects farmers from extreme weather: greenhouses. These small scale operations, while prevalent in the developed world, can cost upwards of $5,000, not including maintenance costs. So what about the developing world, home to 78% of the world’s harvested croplands, where farmers cannot afford such prices and effects of climate change are most pronounced?That’s where Kheyti comes in. Kheyti (Hindi for “farming”) is a social impact startup that has developed a low-cost and modular (hence “in a box”) greenhouse solution that fits in about 2,000 square feet of land (typically 2-5 percent of most small-sized farms). Kheyti’s greenhouse has shown to grow seven times more food with up to 90 percent less water, according to the startup. With firm belief in a sustainable development model, Kheyti also bundles services like installation training, smart farming education, affordable loan financing, access to high quality seeds, and linkage to a ready and fair marketplace.Saumya

While the startup was launched in December 2015 in rural India, cofounder Saumya (who only goes by her first name), just graduated from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management with her MBA.

“Kheyti’s goal is to protect farmers from the unpredictability of farming and income variability, ultimately leading to better food security for us all,” she said in an interview with Chicago Inno, speaking from Jerusalem, where Kheyti is currently a part of the MassChallenge Accelerator. “Growing up in Bihar (a region in northern India), I was acutely aware of challenges faced by small farmers and was motivated to apply existing technologies towards this problem, but in the context of the developing world.”

One of the farmers in Kheyti’s network.

Kheyti’s greenhouse is 8m x 27m x 4m (though customizable) and is designed to facilitate application of drip irrigation — or the systematically low and strategic use of water. While easy to assemble and install, its steel structure provides strength and durability in extreme wind, rain and hail. It is also covered in two layers of shade netting on the top to reduce heat, as well as insect netting on all sides to enable protection from pests. Through financing partnerships, the startup is offering its product and services to pilot customers at $2,300, with a $400 down payment and quarterly repayments of $170 over three years.

Kheyti says it doesn’t believe in “handout” solutions — and hence works closely with farmers on the ground. A Kheyti agronomist works with farmers in person, and a WhatsApp messaging group allows farmers to share best practices with each other.

“Our biggest stakeholders and subject matter experts are the farmers who we are aiming to serve,” she said. “While greenhouse technology might be new to them, irrigation is not. They are constantly helping us iterate on innovative practices that will help reduce costs and improve yields.”

Working with 15 farmers in its first year, it has since expanded to adding 35 more, currently all in the Telangana district of India. Northwestern’s Institute of Sustainability and Energy (ISEN)contributed $25,000 to fund the startup and Kellogg, to which Saumya credits much of the startup’s traction, named Saumya a Zell Fellow and has provided $70,000 to the company in funding through the Kellogg Social Entrepreneurship Award. Kheyti also took home $40,000 at the Global Social Venture Competition in Berkeley and won first place at the 2017 Columbia Venture Competition in New York.

Saumya came to Kellogg during early stages of Kheyti’s existence — not knowing where the startup would be when she was done with school, but curious about applying a traditional business education to social entrepreneurship. Concentrating in Marketing at Kellogg, she confirmed her belief here that there is value in running a nonprofit like any other business — “if a venture is not sustainable, there’s no point doing it,” she said.

Kheyti is currently working with an extreme affordability course at Stanford and the Segal Design Institute at Northwestern to make the greenhouses even more affordable with new, lower cost materials. As it improves its product, collects data on farmer yield, conditions and efficiency in the greenhouse and continues to work with more farmers, it is looking for funding as well as further design partnerships.

Edit: This article has been updated to reflect the correct dimensions of the Kheyti greenhouse and the specifics of its current pricing structure. The errors are regretted.

]]>This Startup Wants To Make Your Utility Company More Efficient and Reliable — And Reduce Your Power Billhttps://www.americaninno.com/chicago/this-startup-wants-to-make-your-utility-company-more-efficient-and-reliable-and-reduce-your-power-bill/
Wed, 19 Jul 2017 17:06:55 +0000https://www.americaninno.com/?p=61136Think back to the last time you experienced a power outage. Ever looked across the street to another house or apartment building, and seen their power remained unaffected, or experienced that your power took a while to be restored?

That’s because utility companies have little control over voltage and direction of power flow, especially in times of disruption — that is, until now. Switched Source, a startup out of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Michigan State University, has created a hardware device that allows utilities to better manage the electricity distribution grid.

Utility tech can be a little dense, so let’s break it down: Imagine if a tree fell on a power line, cutting off power distribution from a substation to your home or office. Usually a utility company would send out a crew to reroute power by opening what’s called a “field tie switch,” said Switched Source founder Charlie Murray. But that can take time and comes with its own risks and complexities.

“The reason utilities can’t operate with this switch closed at all times is because it leads to instability and power overload,” he explained. “Offering all the benefits of a closed switch without risking stability, our first-of-a-kind hardware device sits at existing switch locations and acts like an always closed switch but with a controllable valve.”

Essentially, this new invention allows utilities to dictate magnitude and direction of power flow, control voltage, and also allow for newer, more environmentally-friendly additions to the grid, like distributed solar technologies.

Plus, by not having to send a maintenance crew out into the field every time, utilities can save on costs. And by pulling the voltage down, utility companies can be more efficient with power.

Switched Source officially came together as a team in September 2016, while Murray was in business school and wanted to pursue entrepreneurial ambitions after working on business development at Invenergy, North America’s largest independent wind power generation company. He joined forces with the primary researcher and inventor of this technology, Prof. Fang Zheng Peng at Michigan State University, who was given an initial $2.5 million ARPA-E grant from the Department of Energy to help develop the prototype. They have secured a license to operate in all fields and all territories, filed two provisional patents, and have pilot agreements with two major utilities, with deployment of their product scheduled for next 10-12 months.

This traction with their initial customer base is what excites Murray the most, despite the challenges that come with operating as a cleantech startup in the hardware space.

This past weekend, the fourth annual Campus 1871, a startup hackathon for university students from the Greater Chicago Area, gathered the largest cohort to date at 1871 downtown — 128 students across nine universities, including The University of Chicago, Northwestern University, DeVry University, DePaul University, Loyola University, Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Illinois Springfield, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and University of Illinois at Chicago.

This year’s cohort was more diverse than ever, representing students evenly across genders, racial backgrounds, ages, interests and skills.

On Friday, the weekend started off with a fun team-building exercise — the marshmallow challenge. Participants had to build the tallest structure with 20 spaghetti sticks, a rope, some tape and a marshmallow within 18 minutes.

(Students working on building the tallest structure with the given materials. Photo by 1871/Gregory Rothstein & Rena Naltsas)

Following the icebreaker, two rounds of pitches narrowed 50 ideas down to 13, around which teams of 10 were formed.

(First round of the two rounds of initial pitches. Photo by 1871/Gregory Rothstein & Rena Naltsas)

(Photo by 1871/Gregory Rothstein & Rena Naltsas)

Early Saturday morning, 1871’s CEO Howard Tullman flew in from D.C. to engage with the attendees, and shared his insights on tech trends and entrepreneurship. Tullman emphasized that startup founders should use technology to find new ways of doing business. Tullman categorized innovation, optimism, and perseverance as three qualities key to an entrepreneur’s success.

(CEO Howard Tullman giving students a talk on tech trends and entrepreneurship. Photo by 1871/Gregory Rothstein)

After lunch, students attended a “startup life” panel discussion, moderated by 1871 Manger of Events Jihan Bibb, which consisted of General Manager at Jammber Music Ryan Shand, Founder of EX3Labs Adam Wisniewski, CEO & Founder of WeSolv Stella Ashaolu, and ChangEd App Co-Founder Nick Sky. The panelists shared stories on how they got involved with entrepreneurship, demystified the startup life, and offered advice on growing a business.

(“Startup life” panel. Photo by 1871/Gregory Rothstein)

In the afternoon, each team split into subgroups and attended three workshops specific to their skills and interests. The engineering, design and marketing members went to the “When Business Meets Design.” The business-leaning participants learned how to use Lean Canvas and build revenue models. The “hustlers” got some pro-tips on pitching.

(Photo by 1871/Gregory Rothstein)

On Sunday, the 13 teams finalized a variety of prototypes that are accessible on mobile devices and pitched to a panel of five judges, from a travel app that facilitates the traveler’s experience by combining itinerary planning and booking, to a subscription-based platform that aims to solve child obesity.

Respirare, a sensor cap that clips onto asthma patients’ inhaler and syncs with a mobile app to track and record usage data, came in first place. Team leader Mary Novokhovsky started forming the idea when her asthma got progressively worse about a year ago and there was no mainstream solution that tracked her inhaler usage.

(The Respirare team answering questions from the judges. Photo by 1871/Gregory Rothstein)

The Respirare team hopes to continue their momentum by building a prototype that they can bring out to the market and utilizing the resources they discovered over the weekend.

“[Campus 1871] showed me that if you have an idea, if you really believe in it and if you work really really hard, you can achieve whatever you want,” Novokhovsky said.

Muzé, an app that allows users to get information on artworks at museums through image recognition technology, came in second. Timber, a P2P lending platform that helps people secure quality down payments by matching borrowers and investors, and VSeedU, an app that democratizes venture capital on college campuses and educates university students on investing, tied for third place.

Campus 1871, capturing the essence of startup life in one weekend, not only helped many student entrepreneurs jumpstart their ideas but also connected various talents going forward.

Richard Liu, an incoming MBA student at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and team leader of VSeedU, believes that Campus 1871 has prepared him for his future pursuits in entrepreneurship.

“Campus 1871 has taught me how to become a better leader, by aligning different skill sets toward a shared vision and motivating/inspiring teammates rather than delegating work,” Liu said.

Looking ahead, Campus 1871 falls under 1871’s larger initiative and vision to help retain tech talent in the city and foster a community of students passionate about entrepreneurship.

“We really want to create a network for university students, both undergraduate and graduate, to see what 1871 has to offer them, whether it is job opportunities, exciting events, visitors that are coming through the space,” said Deena Siegel, Manager of Membership at 1871 and main organizer of the event this year. “And not just that but also [connecting like-minded students] to each other, and [following up] with them to see where they are at.”

]]>These Are the Top Online College and Graduate Degree Programs in Illinoishttps://www.americaninno.com/chicago/best-online-college-and-graduate-degree-programs-in-illinois/
Tue, 10 Jan 2017 15:14:13 +0000https://www.americaninno.com/uncategorized/best-online-college-and-graduate-degree-programs-in-illinois/While a four year college degree (and in some cases, a masters degree) has become a necessary prerequisite to many high paying jobs, traditional campuses don’t work for every student, particularly those who need to work to pay for rent, food, and other expenses while they study.

That’s why an increasing number of schools are launching online programs that students can complete on their own schedule.

Online learning is relatively new but growing in popularity

On Monday, U.S. News & World reports ranked the top online college degree programs for 2017. They looked at over 1,300 regionally accredited programs, and ranked institutions based on student engagement, faculty credentials, student services, and technology. Several Illinois programs were ranked near the top of their lists: St. Xavier University’s online nursing graduate program was ranked 1st nationwide, University of Illinois at Chicago’s online bachelor degree program was ranked 8th, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s online engineering degree is ranked 9th, among others.

“Online learning is relatively new but growing in popularity because of the flexibility it offers,” said Anita Narayan, managing editor of Education at U.S. News in a statement. “We developed the Best Online Programs rankings to provide students with the tools to identify programs that offer top faculty, positive student engagement and generous support services – all of which are key to productive online learning.”

Here are the top online bachelor degree programs in the US, as well as a look at how Illinois online degree programs stack up.

Top online bachelor degree programs in the US:

1. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University–Worldwide
2. Temple University
3. University of Oklahoma
4. Arizona State University
5. Western Kentucky University
6. (tie) California University of Pennsylvania
6. (tie) West Texas A&M University
8. (tie) California Baptist University
8. (tie) New England Institute of Technology
8. (tie) Ohio State University–Columbus
8. (tie) Oregon State University
8. (tie) Pennsylvania State University–World Campus 8. (tie) University of Illinois–Chicago

Other universities in the Chicago area that made the top 100:
21. Loyola University Chicago
54. University of Illinois Springfield
63. Concordia University Chicago
68. Southern Illinois University–Edwardsville
92. (tie) McKendree University
92. (tie) University of St. Francis

Here’s a look at how Illinois schools fared among other online programs (up to top 100):

26. University of Illinois Springfield
60. University of St. Francis
89. DeVry University

Education (Graduate)

4. Northern Illinois University
10. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
29. University of St. Francis
66. Concordia University
77. Roosevelt University
98. McKendree University

Engineering (Graduate)

9. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
48. University of Illinois Chicago

Nursing (Graduate)

1. St. Xavier University
7. Rush University
29. University of St. Francis
61. St. Francis Medical Center College of Nursing
73. (tie) Illinois State University
73. (tie) Benedictine University
81. McKendree University
87. Lewis University
94. Southern Illinois University–Edwardsville
97. Bradley University

Note: Illinois universities were not ranked among the top 100 in Computer Information Technology online graduate programs or Criminal Justice online graduate programs, the other two categories that US News ranked.